SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases discussion

Any 2024 novel, novella, or story collection, not in the group's reads so far is available for nominations. One large book (e.g. a novel) and up to one smaller (novella) can be nominated

Novel: Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson

Novella: Countess by Suzan Palumbo

Novel: Gogmagog by Jeff Noon

Novella: Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa.

(I'll avoid nominating the obvious Tchaikovsky and Mohamed offerings...)

Alien Clay again. No novella ideas yet

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi for novel and Secondhand Spaceman by Rachel Aukes for novella. Found the latter in Nebula list https://www.sfwa.org/forum/reading/2-...

Robbie wrote:
I would like to nominate my own book The Orb
This is a short novel of around 60K words and is full of my trademark twists. It's a story of good vs evil, the underdogs vs the big bad empire. The Orb is rich with deeply flawed characters who have all been molded by their pasts. And also, a robot whose human friends are molding him in the present. This space opera explores themes of love, loss, trauma, imagination, control sprinkled with humor and lots of action. I have a feeling The Orb will ignite your imagination and entertain you.

I'd like to nominate the new Scalzi novella that came out yesterday, Constituent Service: A Third District Story.

Goodie! I will elect the Scalzi novella also. Thanks Allan. I didn't know about it.

I got a copy of Robbie's book, The Orb. It's free right now in the US. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D...

Kateblue wrote: "I got a copy of Robbie's book, The Orb. It's free right now. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."

Thank you and I hope you enjoy it. Only free today.

I will make the polls later today, so if any last-minute additions, post them now

Robbie wrote: "Kateblue wrote: "I got a copy of Robbie's book, The Orb. It's free right now. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."

Thank you and I hope you enjoy it. Only free today."

Too bad it was only free today. I was going to put it up in a list of free books in another GR group. But maybe when you put it on sale again I can post it for you there

I've been thinking about proposing we bring in some monthly themes next year to shake up the group's patterns a bit. We tend to hit on the biggest names repeatedly (hello, Adrian!) and we've talked before about including indie authors, as one example, but we never have actually voted for one IIRC.

What if we had months that were focused on indie/small presses, specific subgenres, specific markets/countries, etc.? Any interest in that or do we want to keep things general?

Kateblue wrote: "Robbie wrote: "Kateblue wrote: "I got a copy of Robbie's book, The Orb. It's free right now. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."

Thank you and I hope you enjoy it. Only free tod..."
Bummer. I will let you know next time. Thx

Kalin wrote: "I've been thinking about proposing we bring in some monthly themes next year to shake up the group's patterns a bit. We tend to hit on the biggest names repeatedly (hello, Adrian!) and we've talked..."

I like the idea. It would give choosing a little more structure.

Robbie wrote: Thank you and I hope you enjoy ..."

You should friend me since GR won't allow me to friend you. Then you can tell me when any of your books go on sale and I will post. I have to say, however, that I don't know how many people actually pay attention to that thread and get the posted books. There's only maybe 6 or 7 of us that post there. There may followers who get the books and I don't know about them.

I like that idea Kalin, I've been trying to read more indie/small press authors but keep getting sucked into the biggies.

I'm Ok with thematic months, but if for longer periods we can have a lot of strong candidates, I for example don't know what to choose for say, 'first contact' theme published in 2024. Making indy month is an idea I support, even if it is usually a bit harder for me - as you know, I consume like 80% of books by audio and usually indy lacks it.

Also, when I first started the group, one of the main goals was to read up to nominate for Hugoes and this usually shifts the choice to more popular authors (even more than just more popular books as this month's read in H&N suggests).

So, I'll make December polls now while you write suggestions for January 2025 themes

The polls are up till October 16th,
Novel: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...
Novella: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

I voted for my nominee, but I'd happily read Alien Clay or Navola too.

Tchaikovsky is too prolific for me to keep up with, but Alien Clay looks interesting.

I'm going to hold off on voting for a novel, as I'm going to have difficulty adding to my year-end TBR, but I did vote for the novella I nominated. I did think Alien Clay & Navola looked interesting.

If Alien Clay is a little too long for people, try The Orb. It's an easy fun read, full of twists, human and robot development, with a little humor and love thrown in.

MH wrote: "Novel: Gogmagog by Jeff Noon ..."

Gogmagog is loads of fun! I think the sequel is coming out soon and I will certainly read it.